Annotated Bibliography

How should the police system be reorganized or changed to better the U.S. citizens' lives

based on the events of the last decade? Police brutality has become a major problem in the last

decade and has become especially prominent in the last two years. The front lines of the issue

has been the discrimintation of people of color. Recently, the tagline “All Cops Are Bad” or

“ACAB'' has also become prominent. Although not all cops are inherently bad, the reasoning

behind the tagline is that these officers are not doing anything to help fix the system and punish

the other cops who are being discriminatory. From this, the question of how we can fix the

problem arised. Whether it be completely getting rid of the police system, having the system be

reorganized, or possibly redoing the training to be a cop, these all have been proposed as options.

Logos is implied in this because of the research needed to show liable improvements. Ethos is

shown because it is the literal question of authority and how it can be made better. Finally,

pathos is very prominent as the main problem has been over our own humanity and people being

unjustly arrested, hurt, charged, and in some cases, killed.

Abrams, Zara. “What Works to Reduce Police Brutality.” Monitor on Psychology, American

Psychological Association, 1 Oct. 2020, https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/10/cover-police-

brutality.

Typically, common sense is used as backing for decisions on policies, but should be

backed by an evidence-formed model of criminal justice. To continue this work, psychology

based information has been used to change policies and information. One such policy is training

in procedurally just policing, rather than just intuition and common sense, which could be
swayed and corrupt. This would include giving a base of what is the norm for justness and

fairness as well as teaching officers to explain the situation. Another example of psychology

backed policies would be implementing that when an officer has an on foot chase, they are not

included in handling the suspect when the chase ends to reduce use of stereotypes in high-

adrenaline encounters. Training programs can also include targeting implicit bias. This would

include mixed instruction, discussion, and role-playing to hold officers accountable and reduce

high-discretion policing. In addition, peer pressure and intervention has shown to be beneficial.

If an officer notices another doing something wrong, it could save lives as well as the officer’s

career. This does require change in police culture though. Officers need to become comfortable

with giving and receiving criticism. A change in the definition of a police stop would also help as

many go unreported and are “ casual” but could easily escalate, especially when many have the

intent to investigate. When undergoing a “high-discretion search,: police are also more likely to

show racial bias. Finally, adding more criteria, such as “cultural competence” to become an

officer would be beneficial. Personality traits such as executive functioning, metacognitive skills,

and emotional regulation could dramatically combat bias and work towards acting on actions and

behaviors, not stereotypes.

This article seems to be credible all around. First off, it is published by the American

Psychological Association, which is the most profound scientific and professional association of

psychologists across the country. Next, the article is free from personal opinions, instead stating

facts and expanding on them. The author also quotes multiple psychologists and studies they

have done that directly relate to the topic. This is also relevant as it was written just over a year

ago and in the middle of the current crisis with police brutality.
Ray, Rashawn. Neily, Clark. “A better path forward for criminal justice: Police reform” The

Brookings Institution, April 2021,

https://www.brookings.edu/research/a-better-path-forward-for-criminal-justice-police-reform/

The Law Enforcement Bill of Rights as well as Qualified Immunity have made it very

difficult for a police officer to be sued or held accountable for their actions. Recents surveys

have shown that over 60% of Americans support the removal of Qualified Immunity and 80% do

not agree with erasing police misconduct records. On average, officers are trained for 50 hours

with their firearms, but under 10 hours on de-escalation tactics, so naturally they are more

comfortable with their weapons. Civilian payouts for police misconduct are also coming from

municipality, or taxes, rather than from the officers or their police departments, giving no

reprimanding to the officers for their misconduct. Requiring police departments to buy

professional liability insurance, like doctors and lawyers. This would make it so the more an

officer undergoes misconduct, the higher the rates are. This leads to the possibility of the rate

being too high and the officer being uninsurable and therefore unhirable; this would give a good

incentive for officers to be held accountable for their actions. In addition, Police unions are often

like a fraternity and it dilutes the ability for officers to be held accountable. Although unions are

not inherently bad, there does need to be some reorganization to prevent this from happening.

Officers also often embody themselves as above the community, however they are supposed to

be of the people, or part of the community. To combat this, a change in police culture is required.

Instead of being rewarded for arrests, tickets, citations, etc. to show productivity, they should be

credited for the daily things they do that protect and, more importantly, serve the community.
 I believe that this article is generally credible, though could use some improvement. The

article is published by The Brookings Institution, which is a non-profit organization that works to

research problems to generate ideas to benefit society. The article also uses a lot of personal

opinions and ideas that don’t seem to be backed by anything. Adding to it, there isn’t a use of

any sources, instead are all just ideas. The ideas are also not very developed.

Jawando, Michele, and Chelsea Parsons. “4 Ideas That Could Begin to Reform the Criminal

Justice System and Improve Police-Community Relations.” Center for American Progress, 2

Dec. 2014, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/4-ideas-that-could-begin-to-reform-the-

criminal-justice-system-and-improve-police-community-relations/

Special prosecutors in cases of police misconduct should be increased. On many

occasions, the special prosecutors show more sympathy and mercey than they should. 70% of

black people reported that they felt police force against them was excessive. The implementation

of a state attorney general, in addition, could provide some sort of separation from the police to

reduce bias and unnecessary sympathy. Following this, enhancement of data of deaths involving

police would also be beneficial. Currently there is a data gap in reports as many departments are

not required to report them. Implementing a law that requires these to be reported would allow

for more accurate numbers and for people to see the current problem. Implicit bias training

would be helpful as well. Officers were shown to be quicker to shoot an armed black man than

white man and slower to refrain from shooting an unarmed black man than white man. Although

training may not reduce bias, it is aimed to increase awareness. Another way to help with

reducing bias would be to increase diversity in the workplace. Finally, an increase in federal
oversight of police conduct would also be helpful. A nationwide expectation would ensure

compliance and help for police officers to be held accountable.

This article is overall pretty credible. They use a number of different sources and explain

with good reasoning. They do have some personal opinions here and there but generally are

unbiased. The organization itself does have some bias as they tend to push for more progressive

movements, though it doesn’t affect the article as a whole. The timeliness of the article is also

important. Although it was written in 2014, it shows how important the need to change is as this

has been going on for a long time.